Labor Day Blues
by William Easley
Summary: On her first day back in Piedmont, Mabel muses on the past summer, when, it was, you know, great! Except...well, except for the times when it wasn't.


**Labor Day Blues**

 **(September 1, 2014)**

* * *

Hi, is this thing working? This is Mabel Pines comin' atcha from Dad's old voice recorder. Just a sec.

It's working! Do I really sound like that? I guess I do. My voice is _adorable!_

OK, down to business. Let's get serious here. Ahem. (Giggles.) I feel dorky!

All right, all right, really and truly. Dipper has kept a Journal for years now. I don't have the patience and it's too schooly for me, sitting down and writing for hours at a time. But I don't mind talking.

So, Dad replaced his voice recorder this past summer with a newer model and he said I can have this one, which will record up to six hours digitally. And I can transfer the sound files to my laptop and later if they sound stupid, I can just zap! Erase them.

Let me see if keeping this kind of a Journal will help me be a little more Dippery and a little less Mabelly.

Because, well, it's no big deal, you know me! Good old cheerful optimistic Mabel! But, well.

(Long pause)

* * *

So. It's Monday, September 1, 2014, and I am fifteen years old. Barely. No, wait, I'm wearing my sleep shirt and pajama bottoms. I kid, I kid. (Long sigh)

See, the thing is, I'm miserable right now. And I'm not usually. I mean, sure, things happen to make me feel bad, you know—my favorite teacher died. My so-called boyfriend turned out to be an (garbled sound). I went back and erased a word because I'd hate for Mom to hear what I just called Trey.

But he was like the orifice from which bovine waste issues! YOU know what I mean.

But I found ways of healing from those hurts, you know? And then we went to Gravity Falls for the summer, and it was so freaking great! But as soon as we got there, there was this Banshee that warned of a coming death.

And there was this monster that survived Weirdmageddon and had a thing for destroying the Shack.

And—there was—excuse me.

(Long pause)

There was Russ. So gentle. He—he wasn't human. Not fully. He could cha—excuse me. (Sounds of gulping. Someone blows her nose.) He could, um, change from being a fox to being a human and back again.

And I got to like him. Just in a sh-short ti-time. I—excuse me.

(Long pause)

(Softly, hard to hear:) I think I might have started to fall in love with Russ. And this monster came to the Shack, and it wanted to ki-kill me, and Russ—Russ—

(Silence, then clicks.)

* * *

(Whispered:) Russ gave his life for me. And a little place in my heart aches every time I think about him.

The rest of the summer was good, it was, you know, good. I got to hang with Candy and Grenda a lot, and even Pacifica is turning out to be a good friend. And Dipper and I had some adventures, and I got to see him growing closer and closer to Wendy, and I love her like a sister, and—that was good.

And, and I met a boy, a real human boy, real ordinary in so many ways. His name is T. K. O'Grady, but we call him Teek. And I—do I love him? I don't know! I like him a lot. He fell in love with me over the summer.

Well, who could blame him, am I right? Nyuck-nyuck!

And I really, really do like him so much. I said ordinary, but he's pretty smart and he's brave, too. His looks could stand some work, but I can help him with that. I hope I love him, but I'm getting to realize that I don't know what love is, really.

But what—what tears me up—well, yesterday morning in Gravity Falls I saw—I saw a little—fox—

(Long pause)

See, Russ's parents told me he might come back to them, but if he did, it would be as a fox, not as a foxen, which is someone who can turn into a fox and back to human. And—it was Russ. I KNOW the fox cub was Russ. And he came up to me just like a little pu-puppy, and licked my fa-face—(Sounds of sobbing) I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I can't help it. Let me pull it together.

(Silence, then clicks)

* * *

Thinking of Teek and thinking of Russ, I know, I mean, intellectually and all that stuff, I know that Russ and I didn't have a chance, and that Teek and I do. But, but if I get this emotional because Russ is lost to me—how do I really feel about Teek?

I'm gonna have to sort that out. Teek's already face-timed me twice in the last two days, and we had good talks, and my heart sort of flutters happily when I hear his ring tone on my phone.

But I feel so guilty. Because I think that love needs to be whole-hearted. I mean, Dipper ADORES Wendy! It makes no sense, and I even tried to hook him up with girls our age and all, but—but he can't help it. He adores her! And she's getting to love him, even though she's three years older. Well, two years right now, 'cause she's seventeen and we're fifteen, but her birthday comes in the spring, and THEN she'll be three years older again.

But—she sees something in my Bro that is making her fall for him, and I think pretty hard. They are already talking engagement and marriage and all.

And like I say, I really, truly, deeply like Teek—but a little part of me is still mourning for Russ.

And the hell of it—sorry if you heard that one, Mom—is that I can't TALK to anybody about it. Dipper would get all "Oh, Mabel, you might need professional counseling, it's the process of grief, blah blah."

Dad would listen to me, but he doesn't understand stuff like this. He's like Grunkle Ford when it comes to emotions. Dad and me—'scuse me, school starts tomorrow, that should be he and I, Dad and I, I mean—we both have this twisted sense of humor and we both get a big kick out of little things in life, and I love Dad to pieces, but talking about love to him is like talking about deep-sea diving to Waddles. It's something beyond his range of experience. Man, I sound like Dipper now. That's scary.

And Mom would just start to make a list. This is the first thing you do, and then you—I can't take it. I'm sorry if you hear this, Mom, but Dipper's the one you like. Not me. I'm too random for you and too silly. You don't understand me. That's OK, I know you can't help it.

Wendy would at least listen, and I may call her if the hurt doesn't let up soon.

Meanwhile, I have to be Mabel, cute and silly and always upbeat. People expect me to be that way, and I gotta do it. But—oh, man. Oh, man.

(Shaky voice) That's so hard to do when you have a little bit of your heart that hurts as bad as this.

(Recording ends)

* * *

 _The End_


End file.
